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We have now explained our conception of Reality [True Being]
and considered how far it agrees with the teaching of Plato. We
have still to investigate the opposed principle [the principle of
Becoming].
There is the possibility that the genera posited for the
Intellectual sphere will suffice for the lower also; possibly
with these genera others will be required; again, the two series
may differ entirely; or perhaps some of the sensible genera will
be identical with their intellectual prototypes, and others
different- "identical," however, being understood to mean only
analogous and in possession of a common name, as our results will
make dear.
We must begin on these lines:
The subject of our discussion is the Sensible realm: Sensible
Existence is entirely embraced by what we know as the Universe:
our duty, then, would seem to be clear enough- to take this
Universe and analyse its nature, classifying its constituent
parts and arranging them by species. Suppose that we were making
a division of speech: we should reduce its infinity to finite
terms, and from the identity appearing in many instances evolve a
unity, then another and another, until we arrived at some
definite number; each such unit we should call a species if
imposed upon individuals, a genus if imposed upon species. Thus,
every species of speech- and similarly all phenomena- might be
referred to a unity; speech- or element- might be predicated of
them all.
This procedure however is as we have already shown, impossible in
dealing with the subject of our present enquiry. New genera must
be sought for this Universe-genera distinct from those of the
Intellectual, inasmuch as this realm is different from that,
analogous indeed but never identical, a mere image of the higher.
True, it involves the parallel existence of Body and Soul, for
the Universe is a living form: essentially however Soul is of the
Intellectual and does not enter into the structure of what is
called Sensible Being.
Remembering this fact, we must- however great the difficulty-
exclude Soul from the present investigation, just as in a census
of citizens, taken in the interests of commerce and taxation, we
should ignore the alien population. As for the experiences to
which Soul is indirectly subject in its conjunction with Body and
by reason of Body's presence, their classification must be
attempted at a later stage, when we enquire into the details of
Sensible Existence.
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